Summary

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This report looks at young people who were under youth justice supervision in Australia during 2023–24 because of their involvement or alleged involvement in crime. It explores the key aspects of supervision, both in the community and in detention, as well as recent trends. Some data are included from the period during which COVID-19 and related social restrictions were present in Australia, specifically between March 2020 and June 2022.

Updates and changes for 2023–24

Availability of Northern Territory data for 2023–24

The following data were not available for the Northern Territory in 2023–24:

  • all supervision (average day)
  • community-based supervision (average day)
  • orders
  • completed supervision periods (all supervision and community-based supervision)
  • average length of time spent under supervision during the year (all supervision and community-based supervision).

The Australia total for these measures exclude the Northern Territory for both numbers and rates per 10,000.

Impact of increased age of criminal responsibility on rates

In this report, rates are usually calculated for young people aged 10–17. In 2023, the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. This means that 10 and 11-year-olds cannot be held criminally responsible for their conduct in these jurisdictions during 2023–24.

To account for the increased age of criminal responsibility in these jurisdictions, the rates for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory in 2023–24 are for young people aged 12–17 (instead of 10–17) as 10 and 11-year-olds are absent from both the number (numerator) and population (denominator) used to calculate rates. The rates for Australia in 2023–24 will use the sum of the 12–17 population for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory and the 10–17 population for all other jurisdictions. All rates prior to 2023–24 will use the 10–17 population for all jurisdictions and Australia.

Note that care should be taken when comparing 2023–24 rates with prior years for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. As the exclusion of 10 and 11-year-olds for these jurisdictions in 2023–24 has reduced the total in-scope population (denominator) by about 25%, rates will appear higher than in prior years.

When reporting rates at the state and territory level, this report presents rates for young people aged 12–17 (for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory in 2023–24, separate to rates for young people aged 10–17 for all other jurisdictions).

About 4,200 young people aged 10 and over were under supervision on an average day

A total of 4,227 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision on an average day in 2023–24 and 9,224 young people were supervised at some time during the year.

Nearly all young people (96%) under youth justice supervision on an average day were aged 14 and over. This was similar for community-based supervision (96%) and detention (95%).

Among those aged 10–17 under youth justice supervision, the rate of youth justice supervision on an average day in 2023–24 was 12 per 10,000.

Most young people were supervised in the community

Just over 4 in 5 (82%) young people under supervision on an average day were supervised in the community, and 1 in 5 (20%) were in detention. (The number of young people under all supervision will not equal the sum of community-based supervision and detention because young people can be in both types of supervision on the same day).

The majority of young people in detention were unsentenced

Four in 5 (80%) young people in detention on an average day were unsentenced – that is, they were awaiting the outcome of their legal matter or sentencing.

Young people spent an average of 6 months under supervision

Individual periods of supervision that were completed during 2023–24 lasted for a median of 92 days or about 3 months. (This includes time under supervision before 1 July 2023 if the period started before that date.)

When all time spent under supervision during 2023–24 is considered (including multiple periods and periods that were not yet completed), young people who were supervised during the year spent an average of 182 days (about 6 months) under supervision.

Supervision rates varied among the states and territories

In this report, rates and proportions for small states and territories should be interpreted with caution as they may represent a very small number of young people.

Rates of youth justice supervision varied among the states and territories, reflecting, in part, the differences in legislation, policies and practices between each state and territory.

In 2023–24, the rate of young people aged 10–17 under supervision on an average day ranged from 4.1 per 10,000 in Victoria to 21 per 10,000 in Queensland.

In 2023–24, the rate of young people aged 12–17 under supervision on an average day in the Australian Capital Territory was 21 per 10,000. Note that rates in the Australian Capital Territory for 2023–24 are for young people aged 12–17 following the increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

Across both community supervision and detention, the average daily number and rate of supervision has fallen over the 5 years to 2023–24

This section uses the Australia total excluding the Northern Territory for all supervision and community-based supervision due to Northern Territory all supervision and community-based supervision (average day) data not being available in 2023–24. This is to maintain a consistent timeseries over the last 5 years.

The Australia total includes the Northern Territory for detention.

All youth justice supervision

Over the 5 years from 2019–20 to 2023–24, the number of young people aged 10 and over who were under supervision on an average day fell by 18% (from 5,158 to 4,227, while the rate of young people aged 10–17 fell by 23% (from 16 to 12 per 10,000).

Community-based supervision

Over the 5 years from 2019–20 to 2023–24, the number of young people aged 10 and over under community-based supervision on an average day fell by 20% (from 4,353 to 3,471), while the rate fell by 26% (from 14 to 10 per 10,000) for those aged 10–17.

Detention

Over the 5 years from 2019–20 to 2023–24, the number of young people aged 10 and over in detention on an average day fell by 3.7% (from 858 to 827), while the rate of young people aged 10–17 declined by 4.5% (from 2.8 to 2.7 per 10,000).

Rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people under supervision have fallen

The vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) young people have never been under supervision with 1.1% of First Nations young people aged 10–17 being under supervision on an average day in 2023–24.

On an average day in 2023–24, there were:

  • 2,226 First Nations young people under youth justice supervision
  • 1,786 First Nations young people under community-based supervision
  • 499 First Nations young people in detention.

First Nations young people are under youth justice supervision at much higher rates than non-Indigenous young people. Between 2019–20 and 2023–24, the rate of First Nations young people aged 10–17 under supervision on an average day fell from 127 to 113 per 10,000. The rate of non-Indigenous young people under supervision also fell over the period, from 8.5 to 5.6 per 10,000.

The rate of First Nations young people under community-based supervision aged 10–17 declined from 105 per 10,000 in 2019–20 to 88 per 10,000 in 2023–24, while non-Indigenous rates fell, from 7.2 to 4.7 per 10,000.

The rate for First Nations young people aged 10–17 in detention increased from 23 to 27 per 10,000 over the 5-year period, while the non-Indigenous rates declined, from 1.4 to 1.0 per 10,000.

Young people in remote areas were more likely to be under supervision

Although most young people under supervision on an average day had come from cities and regional areas (87%), those from geographically remote areas had the highest rates of supervision (ABS 2021).

On an average day in 2023–24, young people aged 10–17 who were from Very remote areas were 11 times as likely to be under supervision as those from Major cities. This largely reflects the higher proportions of First Nations Australians under youth justice supervision living in these areas.

Young people from lower socioeconomic areas were more likely to be under supervision

Almost 2 in 5 young people (39%) under supervision on an average day in 2023–24 were from the lowest socioeconomic areas, compared with about 1 in 17 young people (6.0%) from the highest socioeconomic areas.

About 1 in 3 young people were new to supervision

Just over 1 in 3 (36%) young people under youth justice supervision in 2023–24 were new to supervision in that year. The rest (64%) had been supervised in a previous year.

First Nations young people (67%) were slightly more likely than non-Indigenous young people (61%) to have been under supervision in a previous year.

First Nations young people were younger when they entered supervision than non-Indigenous young people

On average, First Nations young people entered youth justice supervision at a younger age than non-Indigenous young people.

About 3 in 10 (31%, or 1,543) First Nations young people under supervision in 2023–24 were first supervised when aged 10–13 compared with about 1 in 7 (14%, or 584) non-Indigenous young people.
 

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2021) Remoteness structure, ABS, Australian Government.

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